AN: Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who supported me over the weekend. It was... I was in a very bad place. Thank you for helping me out.And finally, to Nathan: thanks for getting me those stilettos. Best birthday joke ever.

"Gerard?"

"Yeah?"

"What... what happens now?"

Gerard looked around Frank's room, his eyes lingering on the dark patch on the floor that was their clothes. His gaze traveled further, taking in the late-afternoon light that threw shadows along the carpet. It had to be at least five o'clock, now, and both teens were still curled up underneath Frank's comforter. Music drifted through the half-opened door, fast and unfitting for the tense atomosphere that surrounded them.

"I have seen the demon's faceI have heard of her death placeI fall down on my knees in praise of theHorrible things that took her away."

"I don't know, Frank," Gerard sighed, his breath stirring the dark hair on the back of the younger boy's head. Frank shivered, pressing himself back farther into Gerard's embrace. Silence fell between them, thick and uneasy.

"Are we... dating?" Frank wondered.

Gerard bit his lip, turning the question around in his mind and trying to find an easy way to answer it. It was true that he'd harboured feelings for Frank almost since they'd first met, but he still wasn't sure what Frank wanted. They'd just slept with eachother, for God's sake! What more could the younger boy want from him; the social reject who spent his free time hiding in the basement and reading comics? They'd date for a while, Frank would discover that Gerard was a freak, horrible break up, never speak to eachother again. End of story.

Of course, there was the possiblity that a miracle would happen and they'd date happily for years. But how? How could Gerard manage it? He wasn't even sure if it would be legal; he was an adult, and Frank was not. Would that be statutory rape? He supposed that they could keep it a secret until Frank was eighteen, but it would be difficult. Gerard wanted everyone to know that Frank was his, that somehow the vampire had gotten the pint-sized Romeo to fall in love with him. He wanted to show everyone, including Frank himself, how proud he was of his boyfriend.

If Gerard had to be honest, he'd say that everything pointed to them just staying friends. But there was always that selfish part of him that wanted Frank, even if something went wrong in the end.

"I... do you want to go out?"

Frank stiffened for a second, then, before Gerard could panic about what he'd done, he was being attacked by one-hundred-and-something pounds of angry midget.

"Are you really that goddamn stupid?!" Frank hissed, slapping Gerard around the head. "I stole your iPod, put on a fucking dress, almost killed myself with those shoes, and you ask me if I want to go out?!"

Gee threw his arms over his face, trying in vain to protect himself from Frank's rage. Who knew the kid had such deadly accuracy? Seriously; the guy could probably slap Whoville out of the air in one shot. "I'm sorry! I surrender! Just- OUCH! Dammit, Frank! That was my eye!"

Frank sat back on Gerard's stomach, glaring down at the older teen with burning eyes. "You deserved it," he huffed, crossing his arms. "No one likes an idiot, Gee."

Gerard frowned and shoved his hair back. It flopped over in knotted black waves around his face, still dirty with grease and sweat. 'Not to mention what other fluids have been bouncing around in here,' he thought grimly.

To Frank, he said: "Does that mean no?"

The smaller teen let out an exhasperated sigh, shifting downward until he was laying directly on Gerard's body. "I don't know whether I should slap you again or kiss you," Frank murmured, looking at Gee with slighlty-annoyed eyes that swirled with something else; something deeper.

Gerard grinned, trying to ignore the thumping of his heart as Frank leaned closer. He could feel the ghost of Frank's lips as they breathed. "I think I prefer the latter," he said.

Frank rolled his eyes. "Dork."

"Midget."

"Freak."

"Dwarf."

"Nerd."

"Short sta-" Gerard was cut off as Frank lurched forward, smashing their mouths together. Their teeth knocked and Gerard was sure that he could taste blood, but he responded with enthusiasm.

He ran, feet sliding and arms whirling, down the street, the burn in his chest rising to a searing pain that made him gasp. He couldn't stop, though, not when he knew what was about to happen.

The teen looked like a deranged lunatic, flying down the road with his shirt on backwards and his pants unzipped. The kicker, however, was his shoes. While one was a beaten-up sneaker with shredded laces, the other was what could only be a woman's stiletto with the heel snapped off.

Oh yeah, lookin' fine.

Ignoring the confused stares of the pedestrians going about their normal routine (one of them dropped his coffee, poor guy. Gerard would grieve for him later), Gee skidded down the sidewalk and prayed that he made it on time. He had just spotted the oh-so-familiar curve of his driveway when someone small and pale knocked him over.

The cat blinked back at him, its white fur standing on end in pure shock. Deciding that he could spazz at felines later, Gerard picked himself up and stumbled to his door.

Riiiing!

Oh no.

Riiiing!

Please, no.

Rii- "Hello?"

"I SAID NO, DAMMIT!" Gerard yanked the door of his house open, running into the kitchen fast enough to send his sneaker zooming into the hallway. He slipped, smashing into the counter with enough force to knock the air from his lungs.

"Gerard?!" his mother shrieked, almost dropping the phone. "Hang on, Linda. Gerard, are you okay?"

Gee braced himself against the counter, trying to breathe. "Hang... up..." he gasped, pointing to the phone. "For... the love of... God, Mom... Hang up!"

"What? What are you talking about?" Gerard made a lunch for the phone, but Donna stepped out of his reach. Oblivious to her son's cries, she set the phone on the table and hit speaker.

"Donna? Are you there?"

Shooting a glare at Gerard, Mrs. Way confirmed.

"I don't know how to say this, Donna, but your son... your son is a rapist."

Donna went pale, her eyes growing wide as they snapped from the phone on the table to her half-dressed son clutching the counter. "What?!"

"Mom!" Frank's voice was muffled, but Gerard could hear him clearly enough to know that the boy was freaking out. "He's not a rapist!"

If a gerbil had broken wind in Jamaica, Gerard bet he would've been able to hear it. Donna stared at the phone as if it were a cobra, her knuckles turning white as her hands strained. It was only when Gerard heard a cough behind him that anyone spoke.

"So?"

Mikey, you clueless bastard, run. Take your unicorns and your bass and RUN!

Linda screamed. "SO?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'SO'?! MY BABY-"

"I'm not a baby, Mom! Jesus!"

"-HE'S A MINOR! CORRUPTION OF A MINOR! I OUGHT TO CALL THE POLICE-"

"Please don't, Mrs. Iero. I'd hate to see you make yourself look like an idiot." said Mikey smoothly, taking a seat on the edge of the kitchen table. The grin on his face could only be desrcibed as 'you-like-krabby-patties-don't-you-Squidward' smug. "Frank's sixteen, right?"

"You know he is!"

"Well," continued Mikey. Gerard wanted to smack the grin off his face, but if the seventeen-year-old could get him out of being charged, he was willing to contain his violence. "The age of consent for New Jersey is sixteen."

"... Huh?"

(I seriously looked this up on Wikipedia. Look at me; I'm like a real author with all my research!)

"The age of consent is sixteen. Frank is sixteen. My brother, as creepy and undeniably weird as he is, is not a rapist." Mikey's eyes flicked over to Gerard, who was considering getting on his knees and kissing his brother's feet. With another Cheshire Cat grin, the younger Way mouthed: 'you owe me one'.

Linda, however, was not as pleased with Mikey's research. "How would you know that?" she demanded. "Did you know this was going to happen, Michael?"

Mikey, grin dropped. He looked at the phone with an expression of intense horror, almost as if the little device had turned into a naked Vernon Dursley. "Oh GOD, no! You think I'd- Ew. No offense, guys."

"None taken," Frank chirped.

Donna peered at her youngest son, probably gratful for the distraction. "How did you know?"

Mikey poked his tongue between his lips, biting down on the muscle and scrunching up his eyes in discomfort. "Uh... It's... not important?"

Mrs. Way gave him a look that said 'this isn't over' before turning back to the phone. Somewhere in the background, Gerard could've sworn he heard Frank giggling. It brought a grin to his lips, at least until Linda said something that made it disappear faster than Bugs Bunny on crack.

Friday dawned bright and muggy, and Gerard, who was absolutely dying in his skinny jeans, was less than pleased as he and Mikey walked to school.

"This... is... RIDICULOUS!" Gerard panted, pushing his hair back and almost swallowing some of it when it flopped into his face. "It's too hot for school! Mikey, tell the sun to go away."

Mikey frowned, lifting his chin a little to squint at the glowing orb in the sky. "I don't think it'll hear me, Gee," he said after a while. "Maybe you should contact NASA."

"NASA are a bunch of assholes," replied Gerard, shaking the collar of his shirt in an effort to get a breeze.

"Just because you didn't win their stupid contest when you were twelve-"

"I'm telling you, it was rigged!"

"-doesn't mean that they're assholes," Mikey finished. "If you would stop complaining about the heat and start studying a little, maybe they'd consider you for another contest. Would that make you happy?"

Gerard aimed a swipe at his brother's head. He missed spectacularly, instead doing an awkward cartwheel with his arm. Close enough. "Speaking of Frank," he said, having to raise his voice over Mikey's laugh. "I think you shouldn't tell anyone that we're dating. Especially not Ray and Bob."

Ray Toro and Bob Bryar were two of the school's well-known misfits. Instead of signing up for sports and taking swimming lessons like everyone else in their families, the two decided to stick together. Ray, who was tall and skinny with a giant puff of brown hair, was always cracking jokes and waging wars against cupcakes everywhere. Bob was more solid than his best friend, and while he was a little more quiet, he never hesitated to act as the obnoxious big brother to his fro-loving friend.

"Why not?" Mikey asked as they turned a corner. The school loomed ahead of them, a massive block of gray bricks and misery. Gerard was pretty certain that the cement was mixed with the tears of students that were unfortunate enough to learn there.

"It's private," said Gerard. "How would you like it if I told everyone that you banged your best friend?"

Gerard slumped in his seat, his forehead bumbing against the cafeteria table as he hunched. His head was swimming in the thick heat, unbearable even with the school's air conditioning. He was almost roasting. "That's it," he moaned, crossing his arms over his head. "I'm dead."

"Does that make me a necrophiliac?"

The teen jumped, his head snapping up in a blurr of dark locks. Sitting directly across from him was none other than Frank Iero.

His boyfriend.

His fucking boyfriend.

Gerard had the bizarre urge to do a victory dance, to leap from table to table while leaving behind roses and kittens. The air would swirl into a rosy hue, glitter would fly through the room like magic snowflakes in a winter wonder land of love and romance-

Or he'd be sent crashing to the floor in a big splat of eyeliner-smeared social reject.

This isn't Junjou Romantica, folks.

(If you haven't seen that anime, I officially pity you. There there.)

"H-hey!" Gerard sat up, smiling for what felt like the first time since yesterday. "How, uh... How are you?"

Frank grinned, propping his elboes on the table and resting his chin in his palms. "I'm alright. Don't worry; my mom's not going to feed your testicles to the dog. She's not happy about it, but hey!" he leaned forward, so close that theri noses were only an inch apart. "At least it's not corruption of a minor."

Gerard shivered, looking away from Frank's face for a moment. The younger boy's face was just intense! Was that the same way Gerard had looked at him before? "I don't know if I should tell you this," he said softly, flicking his gaze back to Frank's nose. "But the way you said that kind of turns me on."

The smaller boy was close enough that Gerard felt the soft puffs that was Frank's breath. That slight pressure, that tiny ghost of a breeze against Gerard's burning skin was drawing him in. Oh man, were people staring? Before Gee could whip his head around, Frank did something cruel.

He lowered his eyelashes, and in the laziest, deepest, huskiest tone he could muster, Frank said: "Corruption... of... a... minor."

'Dear Lord. Someone stop me. I'm going to bend him over this table right fucking now if he keeps it up! I'm going insane, here!'

A tray thumped on the end of their table, causing the boys to jump apart in surprise. Bob cocked an eyebrow at them, sliding into a seat next to Gerard and picking uninterestedly at his cheezeburger.

"Not much," said Frank, regaining his composure and leaning back in his chair. Gerard breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe Bob hadn't noticed anything weird. "Gee's just telling me about the guy he slept with yesterday."

"WHAT?!" The dark-haired teen almost fell out of his chair, only just managing to save himself by clutching on to Bob's t-shirt. Bob shot him a glare, and Gerard took his hand away as if he'd been burned. "I mean... I, uh, thought-"

"Thought what?" Frank asked, looking about as innocent as a box of puppies on Christmas day. That is, of course, until those puppies turn into Jeffery Dahmer and eat your entire family. "Thought I wouldn't mention it to Bob? How could I not? It was his best friend, after all."

Gerard was pretty sure his eye was twitching.

Bob, however, was definitely trembling in his seat. "My best...?"

Frank grinned, the same grin that a clown would have in a horror movie. "Your. Best. Friend, Bobert."

'Shut up!' Gerard thought. 'Shut up now! I'll poison your skittles!'

Bob had gone a deadly shade of white, his blue eyes widened to the point of bulging from his horrified face. "I think I should go eat somewhere," he said, his voice shaking.

After Bob had stumbled away, looking as if someone had run over a cat and fed it to him in smoothie form, Gerard seized the front of Frank's shirt and almost pulled him over the table. "What the hell was that?!" he hissed.

Frank just laughed. "Oh, come on, Gee! It's not like I lied to him! I'm one of his best friends, and you did have your oh-so-wicked way with me yesterday. Bob just jumped to a conclusion, that's all."

"I see," said Gerard, wanting to throttle his boyfriend until he was blue in the face. "And when do you plan on telling Bob this?"

The smaller teen shrugged, still smiling like the Joker at a nudist beach. "Let him figure it out. He ruined my Gee-time, so I shall let him suffer."

Gerard sighed, loosening his grip on Frank's shirt but not letting go completely. Frank, small and adorable as he might be, was one sick son of a bitch. "You frighten me, you know that?" he said after a while.

"And you love that about me."

Gerard's heart stopped, electricity flowing over his skin and making his mouth go dry. A small 'thump' let him know that his hand had fallen from Frank's shirt and onto the table, but he barely felt it. There they were. There were the words. He could say them right now, throw them out there for everyone to hear.

'I love you, Frank'.

After all, Frank had said that he loved Gerard, hadn't he? In that shadowed bedroom, curled up under the covers and still panting from the sex, Frank had said that he might love him.

Might.

God, he hated that word. He had to know for sure before he said anything. Did Frank mean love as a friend, or as something more? Maybe he was just going with the moment, saying anything Gerard wanted to hear. Was this Frank's way of making sure that they didn't break their friendship? By pretending to be in love so that they wouldn't lose each other? Gerard needed to find out.

But he didn't get to.

At that moment, that tiny part of Gerard's brain that seemed hell-bent on destroying his life decided to make an appearance.

'Hey man...'

Oh no.

'You remember that picture you found on the internet? The one of the black man in the garbage can at McDonalds?'

No...

'Now you do.'

Gerard burst out laughing, his voice piercing throught the cafeteria like a siren before being swallowed up by the babble of the other students. Some actually stop their conversations and look at him, mildly surprised, before continuing with whatever 'life-changing' topic they were discussing.

The laughing went on for nearly three minutes before Frank punched him.

At first, Gerard wasn't even aware that Frank had moved. He saw a blur, felt the collar of his shirt being yanked visciously, and then felt the blinding pain of his lip being smashed against his teeth. Blood flew from his mouth, spraying onto the table and bubbling with saliva. Had Frank not kept his vice-like grip on Gerard's shirt, the older teen surely would've been sent to the floor.

"You bastard!" Frank spat, his nose nearly an inch away from Gerard's face. Gerard, who was still dazed from the punch, giggled in response. "Is this all a joke to you? Were you just pretending?!"

Gerard finally managed to get a grip on himself, fighting back the last few giggles by biting his mangled lip. "What?" he asked, his mouth still curled in a half-smile.

Frank pushed him back, a look of disgust stamped over his face. "What do you mean, 'what'?" he demanded. "I said you loved me. Didn't you hear me?"

"Well, yeah," said Gee, still grinning despite the awkward hush that had fallen over the cafeteria.

The reaction was immediate. Frank's face crumpled, his eyes twisting up as they watered. "But then... you..." Something must have dawned on him at that moment, because suddenly he was staggering back from the table as if it were crawling with venomous snakes. "You didn't say it back, did you?" he whispered.

"I FUCKING KNEW IT!" Frank yelled. For a moment it looked as if he was going to hit Gerard again, but he stayed where he was. "You can't... You SLEPT WITH ME! How could you do that to me?!"

"Frank, calm dow-"

"I will not calm down!"

A teacher hurried over to them, the click of her heels distracting the boys just long enough for Gerard to grasp what happened.

"And you love me for it."

It hadn't been a statement; Frank was asking for confirmation.

And Gerard had laughed.

Well, shit.

The teacher, a boney woman with deeply-tanned skin and a passion for pencil skirts, reached them. "Is there a problem, boys?" she asked, shooting glances at Gerard's bloody lip and the tears that threatened to spill from Frank's eyes.

Before Gerard could give her a well-deserved 'no shit, Sherlock', Frank spoke.

"No," he muttered, his calloused hands clenched into fists at his sides. "No. In fact, I think we're done here."

People would say later that they saw Frank punch Gerard again as he walked away. Others would say that they could've sworn they saw Gerard get down on his knees and beg for forgiveness. A few were even crazy enough to claim that Gerard bitch-slapped him and Frank retaliated by throwing away his engagement ring.

An image flashed in Gerard's mind, a memory of Frank's face from the day before. Even while being alone, completely vulnerable and at his weakest moment, Frank had looked at him as if he'd been blind and Gerard had given him the gift of sight. It was a face of trust, hope, passion, and...

"Oh God," Gerard moaned, rolling over and pressing his face into the pillow. "I'm an idiot."

"That you are," said Ray helpfully. "By the way, do you know why Bob keeps looking at me like I ate a kitten in front of his grandmother? It's kind of freaking me out."

Operation 'Get Frank Back So Gerard Doesn't Grow Old And Alone In His Brother's Basement' took nearly a week to get put into action. During that time, Gerard discovered that stalking the Iero family was harder than he thought.

"I just don't see how it's such a bad idea!" Gerard complained one day to his brother. The Way boys were hiding out in Gerard's room, and since Gerard had yet to face the fiery demon that was Frank's mother, the silence was starting to get a little overwhelming.

Mikey adjusted his glasses, squinting at the address Gerard had written on a napkin earlier that day. "Gee, you can't crash a wedding. People get arrested for that shit. You know what they do to guys like you in prison."

(... I regret nothing...)

Gerard rolled his eyes. "I already chased down Frank's cousin. He says there won't be any security at the reception, so all I have to do is wear a suit and I'm in."

"And where will you find such a suit?"

Grinning sheepishly, the older Way pointed to his closet. Dreading the evil that could be lurking in there, Mikey cautiously approached it and opened the door.

"... Do I even want to know?"

Gerard shrugged, feeling slightly proud of himself and his internet-shopping skills. "Ebay."

As Gerard stood outside the local reception hall, he couldn't help but wonder if he should just turn around and wait for the next school day. Jason Aldean's voice, muffled by the doors but still obnoxiously loud, blasted in his ears and made them shriek. The boy winced as the song reached a particularly high note, almost making him get down on his knees and beg God to tell him what he'd done to deserve this.

But he had a mission, and knowing what the prize was, only giant packs of hellhounds could make him retreat.

Gerard was wearing what he now considered his favourite outfit: a black suit, a red tie, and a white collared shirt splotched with fake blood. According to the profile on eBay, it was supposed to be used as a Halloween costume.

Fuck that. As far as Gerard was concerned, it was supposed to be worn every day for the rest of his life. He could see his funeral already; a small crowd of people gathered around his coffin to celebrate the life of the person who could possibly be the sassiest male in the history of suit-wearing homosexuals.

A car honked in the distance, breaking the teen out of his daze. Feeling like a soldier going into battle, he sprinted up the steps and into the hall.

The lights were almost as traumatizing as the music. The second Gerard managed to get inside, he was nearly blinded by a flurry of white strobe lights and multicoloured spotlights. The newly-wed couple were twisting in the middle of the dance floor, somehow managing to find a rhythm in what Gerard thought was an absolute train wreck of violins and acoustic guitars. People were copying them, forming a dark mass of well-dressed drunks. Gerard could see servers weaving in and out of the crowd, their bright red vests making them instantly identifiable.

After stumbling across the room and nearly being raped by a rather beefy woman in a tiny dress, Gerard was nearly in tears. If he couldn't even find the damn wall in this place, how was he supposed to find Frank?

As if to answer, the DJ's voice came over the speakers set up in the far corners of the hall.

"Alright, guys! This next song comes from a little buddy of mine called Frankie! What's it called, son?"

"Uh, The Rock Show by Blink 182?"

"... You sure?"

"Maybe?"

(See what I did there? Huh? Huh?)

After a burst of feedback from the mic and some swearing from the DJ, the familiar intro came over the speakers. Gerard sighed in relief, thankful for the break from all the songs about break-ups and hoedowns.

The crowd was a bit uncertain at first, obviously unfamiliar with the song. After a few minutes, though, the alcohol got them back into a somewhat clumsy dance. Gerard didn't plan on joining them, because he'd just seen the person he'd been looking for.

Frank Anthony Iero leaned against the back wall, eyes skimming the mass of sweating bodies with disinterest. There was a faraway look in his eyes, and as Gerard edged closer, he could see the boy mouthing the words to a different song than the one playing in the hall. His outfit was blood-free; a simple white button-up shirt and a pair of black slacks. If he'd made his hair neater for the wedding, it had obviously gone back to its natural messy state.

Under the fast-moving lights, he was breathtaking.

Gerard hesitated, wondering if he should just turn around and go home. Frank was obviously unhappy, and he doubted that showing up uninvited would lighten his mood. Deciding that he had nothing to lose, Gerard took that last step forward and tilted Frank's chin up with his finger.

Frank, obviously expecting some relative, beamed at him with a smile that was fake enough to be melted down into Pam Anderson's boobs. "Hiya-" He stopped abruptly, his eyes widening as he took in the person in front of him. "Gerard?!"

Gee smiled nervously, moving his hand from Frank's face and stuffing it in his pocket. "Hey, Frankie."

Frank's expression went from bewilderment to fury. For a second, Gerard half-expected him to pull out a gun. "You can't be here," he growled, raising his voice to be heard over the music. "This is a wedding. Leave."

Gerard shook his head, swallowing back the vomit that threatened to make an appearance at Frank's scowl. "We need to talk."

"I disagree," Frank said back. "I think you've done enough already. If you're looking for your iPod, I'll give it to Bob on Monday and he can pass it to you."

"I'm not looking for my iPod, Frankie!" Gee said quickly, blocking Frank's escape by putting his arms on either side of the boy's head. "I came here looking for you. Just hear me out."

Frank opened his mouth, probably getting ready to spit in Gerard's face. After seeing the older teen's look of desperation, he pressed his lips into a tight line and nodded.

"I didn't laugh because I don't love you," Gerard said, trying to get everything out as fast as he could. "I didn't use you for sex. The reason I laughed is because, well... my brain hates me. Mental images of African-American citizens in garbage bins. I'll explain later. The truth is, Frank: I really like you. A lot. Too much, actually. You know what? Fuck it. I love you, okay? Not as a brother, not as a friend, but as a person that I want to be around as much as they'll let me. You have no idea how much it hurt when you left me, Frank, honestly. Ask Mikey. I didn't move off my bed for two days, even when Mom threatened to dump a bucket of swamp water over my head from the local park. I just... wait." He stopped his rambling, deciding to follow the strange idea that had just popped into his head.

Right there, in front of the entire wedding party, Gerard Way got down on one knee.

"Frank Anthony Iero," he said, almost screaming to be heard over the music. "Will you do the honour of being my boyfriend, no matter how bat-shit-crazy I am?"

Frank blinked down at him, shock dominating his features. Finally, his mouth twitched into a smile. "Get up, you idiot. My mom almost had a heart attack."

Before Gerard could check over his shoulder to see Linda clutching the front of her dress, Frank reached down and pulled him up by his shoulders. Gerard flinched, getting ready to be punched. Instead, a very different sensation fell on his lips.

Grinning like an idiot on weed, Gerard pulled Frank closer and closed his eyes.

Gerard Way sprinted down the school hallway, almost colliding with a cheerleader in his haste to get to the other end of the school. His arms were clutched to his chest, holding a sketchpad filled with new ideas for band logos and important notes. Although he'd graduated the two years before, he still needed to get to the classroom before the bell.

It was almost the last day of June, and signs announcing the graduation ceremony taking place later were plastered all over the walls. Gerard ignored the brightly-coloured fliers, knowing the date and time by heart.

The hallways were alive with students preparing for summer. Some were smiling, talking with friends as they cleaned out the classrooms and lockers. Others looked worried, most likely seniors stressing over colleges and life choices. Gerard himself knew which career path he was taking, the letters 'M', 'C' and 'R' already giving him thrills.

The band had been formed nearly a year before, and it was starting to get some attention from companies for its unique sound. Local newspapers were talking about My Chemical Romance: the band responsible for the punk explosion currently featured on college radios.

The twenty-year-old skidded around a corner, passing open doors in a blur of dark hair and clothes. Teachers stuck their heads into the hallway, only to mutter to themselves as they recognized the former outcast.

Two minutes later, standing proudly in the doorway of the main Science lab, Frank Iero waited for his boyfriend.

Gerard slowed as they locked eyes, almost tripping over his feet when Frank smiled at him. After two years, the younger boy still managed to sent Gerard's heart into a frenzy with a single glance. After a rocky start in their relationship, they managed to smooth out a few issues and maintain a healthy (if not strange) courtship.

Gee grinned, wheezing slightly as he made his way over to Frank. "Hey there... graduate..." he panted. "What's up?"

"Nothing much," Frank replied, giggling as Gerard struggled for air. "Mikey's trying to get Ray and Bob to stop sucking face, but that's about it."

"Ray and Bob are here?" Gerard looked around, spotting the couple making out furiously by the fake skeleton set up in the corner of the lab. Mikey was waving his arms around yelling at them to knock it off before he shoved a femur down their throats. The two had hooked up shortly after the 'misunderstanding' Frank had caused had been sorted out, and they were still going strong.

"Don't look now," Frank whispered, wrapping his arm around Gerard's waist. "But I think Ray's about to lose his tongue."

"Who cares?" said Gee, beaming down at Frank. "As long as you've got yours."

The shorter boy smirked, making a few girls next to the sinks swoon. "Fer sure, maybe?"